Sacrifices
by Shutterbug5269
Summary: The tale of how Alexis Castle survived the Pale Wars and Arkfall and how her path intersected with Joshua Nolan.
1. Arrival

**Chapter One  
Arrival**

Town of Defiance  
One week after the Volge attack

A roller (a heavily modified Humvee) pulled up to the hastily built checkpoint and gate in Bissel Pass. A human female in her early fifties, her bright red hair, (which was beginning to streak with gray) bound in a loose braid, spoke to the gate guard. She convinced him she was not a threat to the town or it's inhabitants, even showed them a Pale Wars vintage military ID card identifying her as a member of the 9th Division, "The Defiant Few" which did win her a smile.

"Welcome to Defiance, ma'am." said the young dark skinned man with the intense eyes.

Obviously, she thought to herself, like a lot of places, the tale of the "Defiant Few" had made an impression, given the town's name. She recognized St. Louis' famous Gateway Arch, her father had brought her with him to St Louis once on a book tour in a much more innocent time. A very long time ago.

Before the aliens came and everything had changed forever. Before the Pale Wars. Before her whole world was shattered and everything and everyone she knew and loved had been taken from her. She had been forced to grow up fast, grow a thicker skin in this new reality, this new world that Earth had become since Arkfall.

She smiled lightly back at the earnest looking young man with the Lawkeeper's badge and says, "Thank you young man, you're most kind."

"Yes ma'am." the gate guard replied. "Enjoy your stay in Defiance."

"Can you point the way to the nearest doctor, I need to have this looked at."

She pointed out her left shoulder which was heavily, but professionally bandaged, a graze from a Vo-tech blaster, which got the man's attention, as she had definitely been in a fight.

"You should go see Doc Yewll, she will fix you up right as rain."

The man pointed the way down the street to Dr, Yewll's office and she pushed lightly onto the accelerator of her modified Hummer. When she saw the medical symbol, she knew she was in the right place. She knocked on the door, and a female Indogene opened it.

"What do you want human?" she said.

"I'm looking for Doc Yewll, I need medical attention."

"I am Yewll." she answered acerbically, "Of course you do, or you wouldn't be here, _human_. Get inside before you track something in with you."

* * *

Joshua Nolan was slowly putting on his clothes after a session with Kenya Rosewater. They have a regular thing going...for now, and he doesn't want to screw it up. Even though he was paying for these "appointments" he could tell they had made something of a connection. She doesn't charge him nearly as much as she does her regular patrons. Though sometimes he wonders whether it was because she had feelings for him, or because the sex is just that good. He isn't sure.

His musings are cut short, however, when his "hailer" goes off in his jacket pocket.

"Nolan." he says into it as he finishes belting on his "Po-tech" sidearm and reaches for his jacket. Tommy's reply was crisp, professional and to the point, everything he had come to expect from the young man, his predecessor had trained him well.

"It's Lasalle, a roller came in the gate about ten minutes ago, looking pretty shot up, driver was a human female, claimed to be from your old military unit. She looked pretty banged up herself, they sent her over to Doc Yewll's."

"Thanks Tommy, I'll check it out, I doubt it's the Spirit Riders, but if somebody new is moving into their territory there may be some trouble coming our way, you know how territorial Irathians can be. Let Amanda know that another of the _Defiant Few_" Nolan said with air quotes "may have rolled into town, if this woman's story checks out I'm sure she'll be interested.

After pulling on his jacket and leaving his payment on the table, and planting a kiss on Kedra's cheek, he was out the door. He had a job to do. He hadn't seen anyone from the old unit in over ten years, and he wondered who it was that would be waiting for him in Doc Yewll's office.

He pulled out his hailer again and contacted Irisa.

"Irisa, meet me at Doc Yewll's. We have a new arrival in town who seems to have had a bit of trouble in the badlands. I'm not expecting trouble, but..."

"You're expecting trouble." Irisa replied, in that no-nonsense tone of voice she used when she was unhappy with him, when she wasn't giving him the silent treatment, that is.

She had obviously not let him off the hook yet for his misunderstanding about her dreams/visions. A mistaken impression based on human physiology and psychology that he felt positively awful about. He hated it when she was angry at him, when he let her down, almost as much as he hated seeing her in pain. He had sat up nearly every night this week holding her as she cried out in her sleep. Tormented by the nightmarish visions she had that he simply didn't understand. It made him feel like day old shtako.

He has raised her as best as he could out in the badlands, and hadn't meant to make her afraid of, or ashamed of her own culture or it's beliefs and practices, all he wanted to do was protect her, to keep her safe. She was his daughter, regardless of the alien parents who bore her and had abused her, kept her chained up for god knows what reason. He would kill them again if he could. He loved her like she was his own flesh and blood.

He would make this right with her if it killed him.

First he had a job to do. He had to look in on this old "colleague" and make sure she wasn't going to bring more trouble down on their heads. Until they could get the stasis net back up, Defiance would be vulnerable. Defeating the Volge had bought them some time, but he knew that wouldn't last long.

* * *

"Come in, Nolan, my new _patient_ is over there." Doc Yewll stated tersely, "Why is it that human doctors always make the worst patients?"

"It couldn't _possibly_ be your bedside manner, could it? _Noooo_, of course not." Dr. Alexis Castle stated, her back turned as she pulled her shirt on over the light camisole she wore and buttoned it back up. He could clearly see the old Glock 19 holstered on her back. When she finished buttoning her shirt, she turned, and recognition flashed in her eyes.

"Nolan? Is that really you?" she asked, remembering that once upon a time he really had cleaned up rather nicely.

"Doc Castle? As a live and breathe, it's good to see you!"

They exchanged a brief embrace, and when they parted she looked him in the eye.

"How is Irisa? Last time I saw her she was about ten, right?"

At his pained expression when she mentioned her name, Alexis knew there was something wrong. She clearly remembered that day he brought the small shivering three year old Irathient girl, to her infirmary near what was left of Denver and she could tell that he had fallen in love with her immediately. Irisa had latched on to him and would barely let her get close enough to treat the raw bloody ligature marks on her wrists and the bruises she had in places children should never have them.

She knew that "worried father" look he had on his face, she had seen it on her own father's kind face more than once back in the good old days.

"What's wrong?" She asked, clearly concerned.

"It's an Irathient thing, I handled it badly and she's upset at me, but I'm worried about her."

Alexis decided to take the better part of valor, and changed the subject when she saw the Lawkeeper's badge on his belt. Memories of her stepmother and the number 41319 springing treacherously to mind.

"Since when did you become a cop?" she asked coyly.

"It's a long story, but these people need me, and I decided that this was as good a place as any to settle down. It was time to give up that pipe dream of Antarctica."

Alexis nodded, he hadn't been the first to fall victim to that myth.

"Speaking of which, as Defiance's Lawkeeper I have to inform you that I will have to confiscate your heavy weapons for the duration of your stay, you can collect them on your way out. I'll let you keep your stepmother's Glock, though, I know it has sentimental value for you, as long as I have your word you won't start any trouble. You understand?"

Alexis nodded, she had always been good at staying out of trouble. Much better than her father or grandmother had, and certainly much better than Nolan. She had merely come here to figure out how they had beaten the Volge and if that feat could be replicated. More than any human she knew she hated the Volge, hated them with every fiber of their being and would like nothing better than to see their kind wiped from the face of the planet forever.

"By the way, Alexis, Mayor Amanda Rosewater would like to meet you. Our regiment kinda holds a _special_ place in her heart."

Alexis rolled her eyes at that statement, she would never get used to how some people would engage in such undeserved hero worship. Nobody in the Ninth division, or their Votan counterparts who had put away their weapons that day to save innocent civilian lives thought themselves special or heroic, they had all just been tired of the killing and decided that enough was enough.

* * *

Amanda Rosewater was a nice enough woman, if a little bit to attached to the legend of _"The Defiant Few" _Alexis saw some steel behind that slender, blonde exterior. This was the woman who had organized the defense of Bissel pass in what the locals called "The battle of Defiance." In her eyes, this woman was the real hero. Only a few weeks on the job and she managed to inspire nearly the entire town, human and votan alike to take up arms together and drive out the Volge.

The one question she had been dreading finally came.

"Tell me about yourself, Dr. Castle, how did you come to be here?"

She didn't know why she felt compelled to tell this woman her life story, she had shared it with so very few. Even Nolan only knew bits and pieces, and they had been lovers once. When her entire family died in the siege of New York she had retreated inside of herself and built walls to keep everyone out. Yet she felt the need to unburden herself to this comparative stranger. She just saw something in her eyes, like she somehow understood her pain.

"I was born in Manhattan, in 1994..."


	2. Before The Fall

**Chapter Two**

**Before the Fall**

* * *

The months before the Votan Ark ships arrived was an interesting period of time for Alexis and the Castle household. After much soul searching and discussion with her dad, Kate had declined the job offer by the Department of Homeland Security and had instead elected to accept Captain Gates' sponsorship to take the lieutenant's exam to replace LT who would be retiring soon.

Kate had explained to Alexis later that she didn't want to leave New York for a job that would likely consume her life like Jordan Shaw had done and put an unnecessary strain on her now expanding relationship with her dad, even though she still wasn't comfortable putting their private life out there for public consumption yet.

Not that she loved her dad any less, she just wasn't yet prepared for the media scrutiny that would be sure to follow and neither she nor her father could blame her it was a very scary concept. It would be the last hurdle for them to cross to truly be one hundred percent committed to their union and was likely terrifying to her.

They had, however, finally broached the topic of where their relationship was going, including the prospect of marriage and eventually children of their own. They agreed that it was where they wanted to go in the long term...just not quite yet. She remembered being happy for Kate and her dad and so very hopeful for the future.

Kate did, however accept a training assignment with homeland security to better prepare herself for the lieutenant's position, which would be officially announced when she came back from Quantico, Virginia in six weeks.

* * *

The rumors of their burgeoning relationship in the tabloids soon turned to uglier rumors of a breakup prompting her flight from New York. Rumors fueled by a silly argument in Drago's. One that had gotten heated and gone farther than either of them had wanted or intended which had led to them sleeping in separate beds for the first time in months.

They had both been miserable the entire night, neither able to sleep and they made up in the 12th Precinct's break room the next morning. A tearful apology and affirmation of love that, unlike the fight the night before, never made the papers. The feeding frenzy over their "inevitable breakup" had begun.

To soften the blow of her eventual departure, Kate finally accepted her father's invitation to move into the loft and informed her landlord that she would not be renewing her lease. Without thinking, she had given her forwarding address as "Quantico Virginia" as that was where she would be for the next month and a half.

The week before she was scheduled to depart, she was seen by paparazzi loading her boxed up belongings into a U-haul truck with the help of Ryan and Esposito. Rick was back at the loft clearing space for all of her things. He had turned the guest room into a storage area for the things she wanted to sort through when she got back. The rest, Kate herself was helping integrate as seamlessly as possible into the new home she wold be sharing with her and her dad.

The last thing she did before she boarded the train for Virginia at Grand Central Station, was take the necklace holding her mother's ring and hanging it around her father's neck, taking off her father's watch and pressing it into his hands before she kissed him thoroughly with tears streaming down her face.

Alexis saw this act for what it truly meant. Kate was not one who was gifted with finding the right words to convey what she truly felt, what was in her heart, so she preferred to let her actions speak for her. With this seemingly benign action (though Alexis and her father were well aware what those two simple objects signified and how precious they truly were to her) she let them both know, that although she was going away for a short time, she was not running.

When this training cycle was over, she would be coming home to them.

* * *

Erik Vaughn had tried to make another bid for her affections not a week after she had arrived. She had rebuffed him much more harshly than she had in the presidential suite that night when she was tasked with his protection, and in the interrogation room the following day.

To her credit, she didn't wait for it to hit the scandal sheets, she took the next train home to New York, and was up front to Rick about what happened, and her reaction. She had pushed him away when he tried to lean in to kiss her again, and when he tried to smooth talk her and try again, she decked him.

Before she had gotten to the loft, Vaughn's public relations people had leaked a doctored tape of her assaulting him (edited to make him look innocent, and her the aggressor) to the tabloids, leading to her being suspended from the Homeland security program pending a formal review, and the Chief of Detectives to place her on suspension from the NYPD pending a formal hearing.

By the time she had gotten to the loft it was all over the news, leaving her in tears that the man would try to destroy her career, simply for refusing to sleep with him. Her father had held Kate all that night, put her to bed, and when she was sure she was asleep, he called Paula Haas, his own publicist while she was in bed.

The resulting media shit storm Paula laid down swiftly swung public opinion back into Kate's favor. The unedited video, complete with sound had somehow "found" its way to the same tabloids as the doctored one and since Vaughn was the bigger fish, they pounced on the chance to attack his far too squeaky clean public image.

She was summarily cleared of all charges within a week. Paula Haas had worked her witchy PR powers so well, and outwitted his public relations people so soundly that Erik Vaughn had actually been forced by his own investors to publicly apologize to her in person on national television for his "poor judgment and unprofessional behavior" toward her. When she shook the hand he offered, she "served" him with a restraining order barring him from being within one hundred feet of her. There was enough media scrutiny on him not to make sure he obeyed it.

When she received word from Homeland security that she had been reinstated to the training cycle, she boarded the train to Virginia sporting a brand new piece of jewelry on her left hand. An engagement ring. One he had purchased for her way back when he had first added "be with Kate" to his bucket list. It came complete with a full page photo spread on page six of "The Ledger" featuring Rick on bended knee in the middle of Le Cirque, slipping it onto her finger. The world now knew that Richard Castle and Kate Beckett were officially off the market. They set the date for a week after her return from Virginia.

* * *

Their wedding day was a small, intimate affair on the lawn outside of the vacation home in the Hamptons. Dad had arranged for the altar to be placed on the very spot where he had told Kate that of all of the other women he had brought here, none of then had been her.

The pool had been drained and converted into a dance floor with the addition of temporary flooring over top of it. Alexis would remember for the rest of her life with fondness and deep sadness the first dance shared by Mr. and Mrs. Richard Edgar Castle. (Kate had insisted on taking his name legally, but he only agreed if she kept her maiden name at work to preserve her reputation.)

Of all of the people present, the reaction of Captain Victoria Gates surprised everyone. When the happy couple first stepped onto the dance floor, "Iron Gates" promptly burst into tears, revealing her inner sappy side. She cried at weddings.

Kate and Rick had been truly moved that the captain had not only known about them from day one, but had been quietly been rooting for them all along. She had even won the office pool. (nobody had known that she had anonymously put herself down for a hundred dollars that they would wed exactly two years to the day from when she had first seen them together.

Halfway through the reception, the alien ships arrived, penetrating the light puffy cloud cover with their silvery pointed hulls. In that moment, Alexis Castle knew that her life would never be the same.

The Votan survivors had arrived.


	3. Prelude to War

**Chapter Three  
****Prelude to War**

April 23rd 2046

"_Your father was _**the**_ Richard Castle? The author?" Amanda Rosewater asked, incredulously. A knowing smile spreading across her normally serious features._

_Alexis sighed quietly and rolled her eyes the way her stepmother used to. (usually at her father) a spark of annoyance that soon gave way to a moment of melancholic sadness. She hadn't heard that particular reaction to her parentage in a _very_ long time. So little of Earth's literature had survived the war, and her father hadn't made a lot of friends with his less that full support for it._

"_Mayor Nicky, ahem, Nicolette Riordan, my predecessor was a fan back in the day, she even got her chest signed once."_

"_Oh...I see..." and Alexis' eyes roll once again, but with a hint of humor in the gesture. That was never one of her favorite of her dad's eccentricities. One she was thankful that he had put an end to after meeting Kate. She would gladly put up with it again, if only to have him back, even for a single day._

"_She turned me on to your father's books not long after I started sweeping her office as a young girl." Amanda explained, "She took her signed copies with her when she left, but she gave me these other copies as a parting gift."_

_Her eyes fell on the bookshelf holding at least one of every single one of her father's books on it, several copies of some, multiples of the Nikki Heat series, and it brought a tear to her eye, She'd had them all on her Kindle Fire when she left home for the war, though they had been transferred to several different devices since. His books were the last solid connection she had to her father and stepmother, that they had actually existed outside of her dreams and memories. She had even learned to read page 105 of Heat Wave without cringing. _

"_Mayor Rosewater, I would gladly pay you for one of your copies of each of the Nikki Heats, you have no idea how precious they would be to me, my father wrote them as love letters to my stepmother, Kate."_

"_Nonsense, Dr. Castle, take one of each, I insist."_

_A knowing look was shared between the two women as she handed her the less worn looking copies of the books in question. Holding them in her hands took her back to her childhood, and the picture of him on the back nearly brought a tear to her eye._

_Amanda knew it was time to change the subject, so she poured Alexis a single malt scotch and one for herself and smiled._

"_Where were we?"_

June 22nd 2013

The Aliens had announced themselves after nearly two months of uncomfortable silence. Most likely to study our outgoing transmissions and come up with a means to communicate. They were not conquerors, or explorers, but refugees. The only survivors from the Votanis star cluster in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way, their exodus begun nearly ten thousand years before, to escape a stellar collision that had destroyed every inhabited planet in their star cluster.

Alexis' father, Richard Castle, best selling mystery novelist and card carrying sci fi geek was excited, to say the least. (A more honest appraisal of his state of mind would be that of a nine year old on a sugar rush on Christmas morning) To have his belief in aliens from outer space both vindicated and affirmed in the most direct possible way thrilled him to no end. He thought the cool factor was through the roof that their wedding photo had one of the Votan Ark ships in the background.

He had been exceedingly giddy for the better part of the next day, until Kate had banished him to the couch for a night to remind him of the importance of not ignoring her needs. She scolded him like an errant child that the aliens would still be there when they came back from their honeymoon.

Kate understood her husband's excitement and boundless curiosity about them, as something of a Sci Fi geek in her own right, she could admit that she shared some of his enthusiasm. She just wanted her new husband, her partner, her one and done, to herself for a while. She did manage to get him to forget about the alien ships (along with his own name and the ability to form complete sentences) for the better part of the following week.

The details of how she managed such a feat, Alexis Castle had no desire to know about.

As time went by, Rick practically drank in any and all information he could find about the various races that made up the new arrivals of the Votan Collective as they came to be known. As a writer, his curiosity for the story of their survival and flight from their home system's destruction when humans were barely walking upright. The tragic plight of those poor doomed souls who had had to be left behind nearly broke his heart.

He and Kate made an appearance at nearly every event where any of the new arrivals were scheduled to attend. The Castithans seemed to be the most notable for their public appearances. He had even managed to get his hands on the nearly impossible to get tickets for the two of them and Alexis to attend the ceremony and reception when the Votan Collective was granted a seat at the United Nations.

Richard Castle was a vocal and outspoken supporter for full assimilation for the Votan races into human society. He had pledged full support for finding them viable locations to colonize and create permanent settlements. He felt that they had so much to teach the human race, as their societies had been around before humans had even evolved on this planet.

Alexis tended to agree with him, but Kate, on the other hand was not so certain. Her initial excitement for then had long since waned, and she was becoming much more skeptical of their motives. It led to several arguments and sleepless nights.

The night the Castles hosted a young Castithan couple, Daytak Tarr, and his new wife Strahna to the loft for dinner was an exercise in discomfort for both herself, and Kate.

Alexis felt like she was being personally appraised, like she was a piece of meat. She saw the hungry way Daytak's eyes roamed over her body when he thought nobody was looking and it made her skin crawl.

He didn't try that with Kate though and she wasn't sure if it was the air of "don't fuck with me" she projected that even now intimidated criminals in the box, or there was some taboo about coveting another man's wife in Castithan culture too. Though if she was being honest with herself, between the two of them, the one who creeeped her out the most was Strahna, and she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

On the outside, she seemed like the perfect Stepford wife, (or the Castithan equivalent) but both she and Kate picked up on something that just was not right about her body language. There was simply...something...going on behind those black irises, like they were being appraised...quietly weighed and measured in a way her husband did not seem to notice or possibly even understand.

She hoped not all "Casties" as she had heard them called, were like this or the idea of coexisting with them did not bode well.

Alexis found herself more drawn to the Irathi. Though on the outside they seemed volatile, clannish and nearly feral, once she dug a little below the surface impressions, she learned they were a deeply spiritual people. Through the Irathient girls she tutored, she learned almost as much about their language and culture as they learned from hers. She could speak their language almost fluently by the time she finished tutoring them and truly enjoyed the conversations they would have.

They were much more open than the Castithans, who seemed to be obsessed with their caste, bound to their rigid beliefs and their sense of their own superiority for her taste. They reminded her far too much of the other rich kids at Marlowe Prep that she had taken great pains to avoid.

As the years went by, Alexis finished her graduate studies and began her residency, on her way to becoming a doctor, tensions inevitably began to rise between the Votan Collective and certain elements of the United States government. (and other major world powers) Not to mention various left wing survivalist and militia groups who were dead set against assimilation of any kind. She had never been exposed to such blatant racism in her entire life and spoke out every chance she got in defense of her Irathient students and friends. More than once she was shouted down or cat-called or denounced as an "alien lover" by strangers on the street.

A heated argument over Votan assimilation had even caused a rift between herself and her long time friend Paige, forever severing their friendship. Even though she knew that this had been coming for a long time (they had been steadily growing apart since the summer after graduation) it broke her heart to know that something she felt so passionate about was the thing that finally broke them.

Not long after that, she had been put in the hospital when two young men decided she needed to be "taught a lesson" about being true to her own species. They dragged her into an alley, beat her savagely and fully intended to rape her, when two of the Irathient girls she had been tutoring happened on the scene and physically intervened. They laid into the two men with such savage ferocity that bones could be heard snapping, putting the young men in the hospital. One would likely never walk again.

Alexis pressed charges against the two men and publicly defended the Irathient girls who came to her aid when reprisals seemed likely, with her father's and Kate's full support. The two of them sat with her during the entire trial (joined by Detectives Ryan and Esposito when their case loads allowed and Dr. Parrish when they did not) and her dad's public relations machine made it clear in the press and to his legions of fans that the two teenage Irathient girls were _not_ the aggressors in that incident and had behaved honorably, risking their own lives for his only daughter. After the trial and sentencing, the two girls were lauded as heroes at the 12th Precinct and thanked personally by Captain Katherine Beckett, her stepmother.

As tensions continued to rise over the years, sectarian violence became a regular occurrence, culminating in the assassination of the Votan ambassador to the United Nations. After several days of deliberations, the Votan Collective declared war on the human race.

For eight weeks after receiving her medical license in the State of New York, Alexis had been away for what her father had been lead to believe was a sabbatical to seek hospital accreditation, but had actually been induction into the US Army and an abbreviated officer training course. She knew her father wouldn't understand, he was still hoping in vain for a negotiated settlement before hostilities broke out.

As much as she wanted to have her father's faith, Alexis knew it was not to be.

_Dad, there is something  
__you need to know, I'll  
__be home noon._

She had been dreading this day ever since the draft notice had appeared in her mail slot at the hospital where she was doing her residency. She was compelled to report for induction. The draft had been reinstated the week before and medical personnel were at a premium. The new combat units being activated would need battlefield medics and doctors to organize, train and lead them. Her country called and she answered. When her father opened the door for her, Alexis could see the shock emanating off of him in waves.

"Alexis!? What?"

She knew it would be difficult for him to accept, for him to see her standing at his door in her Army issue fatigues, her red hair cropped into a short bob, (much like Kate's had been when they had first met) captain's bars on one collar and the medical serpent and scepter emblem on the other.

"I was drafted, dad, right after medical school." she whispered.

Before her father could recover from his shock Kate walked out of the kitchen with a cup of the special hot chocolate she had shown her how to make what seemed like a lifetime ago when she had stayed here when her apartment had been blown up.

When her stepmother caught sight of her, she dropped the mug and it shattered on the floor. Her eyes watered and her lips trembled before she fled the room in tears. She knew that war was almost inevitable and every precinct had been advised to prepare, but she hadn't thought for a moment that Alexis would be drawn into it this soon.

Her father moved to go after her, but Alexis gently brushed his arm stopping him.

"Let me, dad...please?" She pleaded. The look he exchanged with his daughter convinced him.

"Okay, pumpkin." He replied his eyes sadly tracing the direction that his wife had gone, before heading to the broom closet to clean up the mess on the floor as Alexis went in search of her stepmother where his own heart truly ached to go.

"Kate?" Alexis whispered, hearing the sniffling coming from the bedroom closet. Even after all this time she still hated for people to see her cry. "Are you okay?"

When Kate didn't answer, Alexis pressed her fingers into the dark wood of the closet door. Her own eyes were beginning to well up with unshed tears as the sniffling and muffled sobs on the other side of the door continued.

"Please, Kate, I don't know how long it will be before I'm able to come back, please come out and talk to me...please..." She pleaded through the closed door, tears now falling unabated down her cheeks.

A few more minutes of quiet sniffling on both sides of the door passed before it slowly swung open to reveal Kate standing in the doorway with tears streaming down her cheeks and a bundle wrapped in one of her blue silk scarves in her slender, shaking hands.

The two of them sat down on the bed as Kate shoved the bundle onto her lap. She unwound the wide scarf and sat staring at her stepmother, absolutely dumbfounded. In her lap lay Kate's police issue Glock 19 in its holster, two additional loaded magazines and a box of 9mm hollow point.

"Oh...Kate...I can't...I..." the redhead began, but Kate cut her off with a light touch to her arm.

"Alexis, when the department transitioned to the Vo-tech inspired sidearms, I was given the opportunity to purchase mine from the department to use as a backup before it was destroyed. It's okay."

"But...but..." Alexis stammered, comprehending fully the enormity of the gift she was being given.

"Alexis...please..." Kate began holding back a fresh set of tears, "I...I want you to have it. This pistol served me well, I will sleep better at night knowing it will help keep you safe."

Alexis took the weapon out of the holster, ejected the magazine and opened the bolt to ensure there wasn't a round in the pipe. She then closed the bolt, re-fed the magazine and engaged the safety before sliding the pistol back into the holster and slipping it onto her belt just above the back of her right hip. When she finished adjusting it on her back she slid her field jacket down to cover it.

"Take care of yourself, Alexis," Kate whispered huskily as her breathing began to hitch, "I love you."

She pulled the young redhead into her embrace as a new round of sobs began to wrack her slender frame, her tears soaking into the shoulder of her field jacket, sobbing gentle "I love yous" into her very skin. Alexis held her tight, like she had seen her father do for her whenever the memories of her mother would become too much, tears of her own flowing freely into Kate's hair.

They remained in each others embrace for several long minutes, each seeming to draw strength from the other, until there were no tears left and the sobs gradually eased. As they were composing themselves and sharing a moment of meaningful silence, they heard a gentle knocking on the door.

About an hour later. when the two of them return from the bedroom, arm in arm they found Lanie Parrish, Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito had joined her father in the living room. Obviously he had made some phone calls while she and Kate were occupied.

She hugged a teary eyed Lanie, her mentor, and the older sister she wished she could have had. Then Ryan, the Irish cop who saw things so much like her father did that it was just a little bit scary. His hug lingered a bit longer than she thought he had intended, before he kissed her softly on the cheek.

"That was from Jenny, the twins are sick, so she couldn't be here." Ryan told her quietly, not sure what caused more pain to the man, her leaving, or worry for his children. He was such a good earnest man.

"Give them all a hug and a kiss from me, too Uncle Kevin." she whispered, her own eyes once again becoming glassy.

Before she could approach Javier Esposito, his eyes hardened, and his posture straightened and stiffened to full parade attention, his right arm snapping in salute to his forehead.

"Ten-hut! There's an _OFFICER_ on deck!"

Alexis snapped instantly to full attention, mirroring his gesture, her right hand rising smartly to her own own temple as she saluted him back.

"As you were, sergeant." she whispered softly before he pulled her into a fierce embrace.

"Take care of yourself, Little Castle, though I guess you really aren't that little anymore."

"You too, Uncle Javi." she replied as she began to cry again.

The time soon came for her to leave, as she got the text message from the staff car that had been sent to collect her which would be arriving soon. (being an officer had its advantages) She hugged and kissed her grandmother, who had been struck speechless, memories of a long ago encounter with Richard's father and a similar teary goodbyes. She had no words.

Her father pulled her into his embrace next. "Take care of yourself, pumpkin, I love you,"

He cried unashamedly into her hair as he crushed her in his embrace, only letting her go so he and Kate could walk her to the elevator, each holding one of her hands. Nothing was said in the elevator, there were simply no more words.

As the elevator doors opened, Alexis heard the the clear, authoritative voice of New York City Police Commissioner Victoria Gates.

"Honor Guard...order...ARMS!"

When the three of them stepped out of the elevator they were met with a sea of blue, rick and Kate hung back, following at a distance as Alexis Navigated the two "thin blue lines" of the NYPD honor detail in dress uniforms standing at full attention that led from the elevator to the front door of the building.

As she passed between each pair of uniformed officers they slowly raised their right arms, hands encased in white gloves to the brims of their hats until she passed between Ann Hastings and Maria Velasquez to stand in front of Commissioner Gates in her dress blues. She snapped to full attention herself as Alexis approached, and they saluted each other slowest way up and quickest way down. When their hands were once again at their sides, she began to speak.

"Captain Alexis Castle, for over a decade, you have faithfully volunteered your services to the City of New York and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. It is only fitting that we honor you for your dedicated and unflinching service to this city as you leave us to serve your country. If you give them even half the dedication as you have shown us I know you will make us proud."

"Thank you Commissioner, I am honored." Alexis replied.

"No, Captain," Victoria Gates replied, a single tear winding down her cheek, "the honor is mine, and on behalf of the Mayor and the people of New York I thank you for your service."

"Honor Detail! Front and Center!"

Hastings and Velasquez stepped smartly out of of the honor line, and turned sharply on their heels to take up flanking positions behind each of her shoulders.

"Escort Captain Castle to her waiting car outside and see to it she has an escort out of the city."

The two detectives saluted and Victoria Gates stepped to one side to allow them to pass.

Had Alexis known at that time, that she would never see any of these people again, she would have taken a picture...or several. Regardless. this day would be burned into her memory for the rest of her life.


	4. The Pale Wars

**Chapter Four  
****The Pale Wars**

April 24th 2046

_After telling Mayor Rosewater about her last few days before hostilities officially broke out, Alexis had begged off for the night, claiming fatigue, but digging into her past had actually started to take it's toll and she needed a night's sleep to regroup. She really didn't know why she was telling all of this to a young woman she had only met yesterday, she hadn't told the complete tale to anyone, not even Nolan during the brief period they were "intimate"after the siege of New York._

_It hurt to think about everything she had lost, because the war really had taken _everything_ from her. Her home, her family, her friends, essentially everything she loved. _

_Her sleep had been complicated with dreams that should have been happy, dreams of epic laser tag battles, walks in the park, concerts, girl talk with Lanie and Kate, shopping sprees with Grams. Dreams that had her waking up in tears at the crack of dawn, reading Heat Wave and trying to remember what Kate looked like when her dad first wrote it._

_What she would give to have one more day, one more hour._

_Shortly after, she rose from the bed that she had been provided in the Mayor's home, she was dressed and out the door on her way to a place called Need/Want in search of parts and ammo for Kate's Glock 19. _

"_Aunt Alexis?" a voice said from behind her. When she turned around, her hand instinctively reaching for the 9MM Glock at the small of her back, a slender Irathient girl about 20 years old was standing behind her._

"_Irisa? Is that you?" Alexis exclaimed as she hugged her then took her by the hands to look her over, "You were what? Ten years old last time I saw you? My God, dear one, look how you've grown!"_

_Irisa smiled at her, one of the few people in her life she trusted as much as (if not more than) Nolan. She remembered as a little girl when he had first carried her into 9th Armored's infirmary. Dr. Castle had cleaned and bandaged her wrists and treated her for the snakebite on her shoulder, all the while whispering to her and softly singing lullabies in the Irathient language while she worked. _

_Feeling from the red haired human woman with the sad eyes all of the love and compassion her own parents had denied her since they "_found religion_" and turned her over to the freaks who had tortured her for days. For the first time since Nolan had carried her from the scene of her parents' death she felt safe enough to sleep, knowing this woman would not let anything bad happen to her._

_Josh Nolan and Alexis Castle were the only two people she had ever trusted from that day on._

_The two of them spent the better part of the day catching up on their lives, Irisa even went with her to the hollows to help her navigate the seedy underbelly of Defiance to help her find the things she needed. Her Lawkeeper's badge and Alexis' gun keeping most of the worst trouble makers at bay._

_It was good to catch up with the closest thing Irisa had to a mother figure since she was very little. Though she deposited her back at the Mayor's office right on time for her to continue her walk down memory lane with the Mayor. She would stay and listen too, but it was her shift to guard the drunk tank and she was running late already. Alexis sent her on her way with a hug and a playful swat on the behind admonishing her for shirking her responsibilities to spend time with a foolish "old woman."_

_When the door had closed and she sat down with a glass of scotch in her hand, she looked up at her hostess._

"_Where were we?" Alexis asked._

"_The beginning of the Pale Wars." Amanda reminded her. Causing the older redhead's face to fall._

"_Ah yes...the war."_

* * *

December 20th 2024  
Just outside Oklahoma City

The war had been brutal almost since the beginning, the Votan Collective hadn't come to earth expecting to fight a war so they fought mostly with irregulars made up primarily of Irathient and Sensoth troops led by Castithans and supported by Indogenes in both medical and technical support roles.

Though their ships lacked space borne artillery which was a godsend, thy made up for it with their ability to disrupt satellite and some wireless communication making organized strikes difficult.

Alexis' unit, the fifty third medical support platoon had been absorbed into the 9th Armored Division which quickly took on the nickname "The Iron Demons" given their tenacity and mobility. It was here in her mobile dispensary where she first met newly minted Corporal Joshua Nolan, or "Nomad" to his friends for his tendency to find himself cut off behind enemy lines and survive.

Half of the medics in her unit were either killed or captured in her first year of service, people she had known since boot camp, men and women she had trained herself and it took a toll. Her wide eyed innocence was pretty much gone now shading her eyes a much darker blue. She was a much harder woman than she had been before. She made few friends now for fear they would find their way into her morgue or would simply go off to battle never to be seen again.

Something about Nolan was different, though, he was a survivor. He kept coming back and that appealed to her. He had a fun mischievous side that reminded her of her dad, but a steely eyed reserve under fire that also reminded her of her stepmother. They soon became fast friends in spite of the disparity in their ranks and their age difference.

She would need his strength to get her through the difficult days to come.

* * *

May 15, 2025

When she had gathered in the mobile command post with the other officers of the 9th and heard that three divisions of Votan troops had surrounded the island of Manhattan cut off all but intermittent contact with the outside world, and set in for a siege, Alexis thought she would be sick. Her entire family and every one she had known lived there, She visibly paled when footage of the artillery bombardment was shown with the statue of Liberty in flames in the background. It was simply too much to bear.

She hated to see it, but she never strayed too far from the communications array for the command CP in case their was any news. She sat in the command CP for days on end when she wasn't on duty in the infirmary as the unit packed up to head for New York where they had been ordered along with five other armored divisions to relieve the defenders. What she saw in the next few days would devastate her for years to come.

The siege of New York had lasted for three days.

The Irathient commander formally requested the surrender of the beleagured defenders every day, but each day Rear Admiral (lower half) Richard Webb rebuffed them with a single word and a sense of historical irony. "Nuts"

Each day, the Votan troops tried to push across the Brooklyn Bridge to take the island, and each time they had been pushed back The last push had been nothing short of brutal, nearly hand to hand.

At 12:01 AM Eastern time on the fourth day, the Votan commander unleashed the Volge.

Within three hours the relentless machines breached the defenses at the Brooklyn bridge and pushed through the flooded, heavily mined Lincoln and Holland tunnels. An hour after that all organized resistance was crushed and the slaughter began.

By dawn's first light on the fourth day every man, woman and child on the island of Manhattan lay dead.

The Irathient commander, had toured the devastation after the Volge had reformed at the primary command center with a wave of disgust, and had emptied his stomach twice while touring the city. He had been against the war from the beginning and only accepted this battlefield command because he didn't want some arrogant Castie ordering his people around. He knew that he had presided over probably one of the worst atrocities of the entire war, and as a family man it made him sick.

As a father himself, he simply couldn't live with the deaths of so many innocent children on his conscience. He only hoped that one day, his children would understand as he quietly turned over command of his troops walked into the rubble and shot himself in the head.

The order had been given to utterly destroy New York Harbor and pull out. The city had never been strategically significant to the Votan Collective, taking Manhattan and wrecking it's harbor had been an exercise in asset denial, but would later become a rallying cry among the humans, who from that day to the end of the war would cry out "Remember New York!"

The dead were left where they fell.

Two days later the 9th Armored rolled across the Brooklyn Bridge into New York City to find a charnal house.

Sergeant Nolan and Delta squad moved out to reconnoiter the area near midtown and everyone had been surprised when Captain Alexis Castle joined them. Not with her medical gear, but carrying a rifle. Nobody questioned her, they simply saluted. She was from here, and her knowledge of the city would be useful.

As they neared a police station marked "12th Precinct" she stopped and ordered the column to halt. The place was surrounded by corpses only a few of them mechanical.

She knelt down over a Hispanic male wearing police issue body armor, an M-4 rifle still clutched in his dead hands. With tears running down her cheeks she bid silent farewell to Lt. Javier Esposito, NYPD as she closed his eyes. Detective Sergeant Kevin Ryan was only a few feet away, they really had been in it till the wheels fell off. They had died within sight of each other.

As they moved inside the ravaged building she stacked up behind the troopers of Delta squad as they formed at the stairwell as they cleared the building one floor at a time until they reached the 4th floor. Before they could sweep the cell bay, Nolan stopped her with a hand to her shoulder.

"Wait here." he said, as he and his squad swept the area, finding two bodies killed by the Volge's cold fire weapons. Clinging together in death, were Captain Katherine Beckett Castle and her husband Richard Castle, their bodies so badly mangled by the Volge's cold fire weapons they were hardly recognizable, their identities had to be confirmed by her badge and his driver's license.

It finally hit home for Nolan who these two people were when he found a photo of a younger Alexis in Richard Castle's wallet. He bowed his head not sure what he would say to his friend waiting in the next room. He blinked twice to clear the tears pooling in his eyes and walked back out to give the Captain the bad news.

When he told her who was in there, she pushed to walk in the door, but he stopped her.

"Captain...Alexis...trust me you don't want to go in there, the cold fire weapons the Volge use really made a mess of them."

"Let me go...sergeant...that's my dad in there...my stepmom..." Alexis responded in a hoarse whisper, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Trust me, you don't want to remember them this way, better to remember them as they were, than what's left in that room." he whispered as he pressed Kate's captain's badge and her father's wallet into her shaking hands as she broke down in his arms. The 9th Armored closed ranks to comfort one of their own as her wracking sobs echoed in the remains of the 12th precinct break room.

It was the last time she cried for anyone, for the rest of the war.

* * *

January 5th 2030

Nobody knew who destroyed the Votanis Ark ships. Rumors abounded, and at least one overzealous military commander tried to take credit for the event. All anyone knows for sure is that all of them exploded in orbit at nearly the same time. What everyone can agree on is that over the next two moths, the debris containing their terraforming technology started a chain reaction that ravaged earth's surface playing havoc with the earth's own biosphere, ecology and geology. The cities that had not been destroyed in the fighting were in many cases utterly destroyed some driven underground, some merely ceased to exist. The west coats was altered radically as the San Andreas fault crumbled taking most of southern California with it. By the end of the year the earth was unrecognizable to those who had lived there all of their lives. It was the beginning of the end of the war, only the die hard leaders on both sides refused to see it.

* * *

December 26th 2030

The battle of San Francisco had been one of the bloodiest of the war, both sides continued to hammer at each other long after the outcome became completely moot. Most of the on the ground leadership was dead, and as it turned out, the highest ranking two officers left alive on the scene were Captain Alexis Castle, MD, and Lieutenant Joshua Nolan.

When a trooper walked into her mobile infirmary and told her she was needed in the command CP, she asked, "Who is in charge here, trooper?"

To which the young woman answered, "I guess you are, ma'am."

"If my mother walks in here you can call her ma'am," (and it would be the least shocking thing in her life, if Meredith indeed showed up) "Call me Captain, or sir from on."

"Yes sir." the trooper replied, snapping to attention and saluting. Which she returned.

"Get me some bodies in here, trooper, this disaster has gone on long enough."

"Yes, sir!"

When her counterpart on the Votan side of the conflict got in touch with her, they agreed to a truce and proceeded to comb the rubble for civilians. Orders had come in to end the truce and resume the conflict but those orders were "lost in transit" as they pulled survivors from the wreckage as nearly the entire Ninth Armored disregarded orders to continue a war that anyone could see was winding down. Since Arkfall, neither sides population could afford the casualties they were taking anymore.

They pulled nearly five hundred civilians from the rubble. For the first time since the war began, Captain Alexis Castle felt a sense of accomplishment. Even after the entire unit was shipped off to the remnants of Denver.

* * *

April 25th 2031

The war had been over for nearly a week and a half when Nolan had come in to her infirmary with a three year old Irathient girl cradled crying in his arms. It took every trick in her repertoire (and some of her father's) to get the child to let go of Nolan long enough to treat the cuts on her wrists and the snakebite on her shoulder. She sang to her softly in the Irathient language which seemed to sooth her to sleep. Nolan couldn't stay here with her, nor could she come with him on his patrol.

He knelt by her cot, and handed her one of his tags.

"Irisa, Alexis here is my friend, she's gonna take care of you until I come back okay?" Nolan said, in a voice so soft she barely recognized it. Her mom and dad were killed by the Volge, so she knows what it means to be sad too."

"Okay." the little girl said as she latched onto Alexis,

"Take care of her for me, I should be back from patrol in the morning." He said to her as the girl fell asleep in her arms.

Alexis nodded, "I go off shift in about five minutes, I'll take her back to my tent, she should be safe enough there, and my cot is a bit more comfortable than the ones in here." she was absentmindedly running her fingers though the girl's hair not realizing she was doing it as she carried her to her tent.

The war was finally over.

Alexis Castle knew, that simple acts of compassion, like Joshua Nolan taking in an Irathient girl and raising her as his own, were how the healing would begin. She knew however, that some scars, like the ones she carried on the inside would likely never heal. She would carry them with her for the rest of her life.

* * *

April 25th 2046  
1:00 AM

"_Well Amanda, that's just about it. There's really nothing else worth telling. I spent the last fifteen years doing what every other person who survived the war did. Scavenged Ark relics where I had to, bartering my medical services for supplies when I could, looking for ways to wipe out the Volge so they couldn't do to anyone else what they did in New York." Alexis stated with a yawn._

"_I'm sorry we could not have been more help to you, Dr. Castle." Mayor Rosewater replied._

"_So am I, Amanda, so am I." Alexis replied softly, "That means I will need to be off again."_

_She stopped on her way out to see the display cases holding relics from each of the races that called Defiance home. When she came to the display case for the human race, she reached into her pocket and took out Kate's badge and ran her fingers over the raised letters and numbers on its surface before she deposited it in the display case. It seemed fitting to leave something of Kate Beckett here near a bookshelf with books dedicated to her._

_It simply felt right._

The End

* * *

_**Yes, dear readers I am ending this here. I want to work on my other two stories and I am leaving myself room to pick this story idea up later while there is still some story to tell. I hope you enjoyed it.**_


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